I'm skipping Favorites For Friday this week so I can post these new wire wrapped cabochons I've been working on. I finally got a pin vise, which if you didn't know, is this great little tiny hand sized vice. You slide your wire in and tighten it up and twist away. Square wire always looks cool when it has been twisted so I decided to do a few cabs with some twisted wire adornment. As always, I really don't know for sure what the stones are since they were slabs I got at the Gem & Mineral Society shop but I really likes them. This second cabochon was wrapped using brass wire which is a tough wire to bend but I was very happy with how it turned out. Personally, I don't like too much wire to cover the actual cabochon since that is meant to be the focal point of the pendant. I prefer to keep it fairly simple and add any extra adornment around it. Although you do need to do some wrapping across in order to hold the cab in place. I think I may have to keep the pin vice handy when I'm doing the wire wrapping since I just LOVE the outcome. Now, I just need to find something nice to hang them on. I did make a really cool chainmaille pendant but my home-made lightbox got smashed in the move and so I'm trying to take the photos in real light. Didn't work on that one so I'll have to play around a bit more. Plus I have another cabochon which I wrapped with silver colored artistic wire that I want to take a few shots of. More of those later though. Hope everyone has a great weekend and if I don't stop by and say Hi than I hope everyone in the States has a great Thanksgiving!
This Sunday is the last day all my shops will be open, as I mentioned previously I will be closing for a few months to just take a break. As well as closing my shops I am also taking a break from the EJDSS Team so on that note I thought I would share items from a few of the team members.
As always, the EJDSS Team is having a great giveaway so make sure you pop over to the team blog and get your entry in. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Yes, I'm still here, just on a SUPER sllloooooww dial-up connection. Ever noticed that not only is dial-up slow but you ALWAYS get kicked off. . . and it is usually right when you are doing something important! So, we are all moved out and in between I managed to snap a few shots of a few new things I have done lately. I have a few more pairs of these beautiful lucite flowers in other colors but this is the next pair that I made. Same as the red ones I posted previously but the ear wire I made a bit different. I really like just making these very simple since I want the flower to be the focal point. Much as I love the earrings that have a flower with beads, crystals and maybe a leaf or two, these just cry out to be on their own (IMHO).
This next piece is something I have actually been working on for a few months a little at a time. I believe the beads are Fancy Jasper but if you know they are not then please let me know. I was just going by pictures on Fire Mountain Gems site and so I could be totally off base. I did the copper wire spiral caps and then separated the beads with Byzantine chainmaille sections. Then added more Byzantine to the "back" part of the necklace. I'll have to get a shot of me modeling it so you can see how it lays. It's meant to sit at the base of the neck. The beads are actually really big, probably 10 or 12mm or for reference, the size of marbles. Chunky but not over the top.
I haven't been able to do many Entrecard drops or stop by any blogs but I noticed that there is a library that my husband passes during the day. I'm hoping to go there one day and use the wi-fi. Might actually be able to achieve a few things. I did get to the LV Gem & Mineral Society shop on Tuesday to finish up some cabochons I needed to shine up. I have some copper and brass wire and plan on wrapping them soon. Of course, I'll share photos when I'm done. Hope all is well for everyone out there in Blogland and I'll attempt to stop by soon.
With all this talk of moving I thought a good theme this week would be items for the home. Not that I'll be going on a shopping spree soon but I thought it would be fun to share some items that I would consider for decorating.
Well, yes I know these probably wouldn't look nice together in the same room but I like them. I would just have to have a huge place ... lol. Anyways, enjoy and have a great weekend!
If you have been reading my blog for a while you will remember my post about the neighbor from hell and if you didn't read it, it's worth a quick peruse here. Well, back when we moved to this new unit we signed a new lease that was for 6 months. That would be the end of October. Since I'm still not working and our hole is getting deeper we are not renewing the lease. So after Sunday I will be back on dial-up unless I can get to the library and use their wi-fi. This means that I will most likely not be able to do as many Entrecard drops as usual and I may be a bit sparse on the posts too.
I also wanted to add that despite this I will be glad to not be near the nut and his nutty mother. The way our complex is set up you come in the gate and the drive is a U shape. We still have to drive by the old unit and theirs to get to the new one. Last week the husband was coming in from work and nutty mom was standing at the door and when she saw my husband she proceeded to flip him the bird. Often when I see a nutty family like this I wonder why Eugenics never caught on (JOKE..sort of). The idea of just being in the same complex as these people has never really sat well with me and so I will be glad to be anywhere that isn't near them. As my husband says, the best revenge on people like that is to live well.
My next bit of news is that on November 15th I will be putting all my online shops into "Vacation" mode. I'm not closing them for good, I just need to take some time away from the fees at Etsy and the stress of all of that when I'm still sitting here without a job. I realize it probably is a silly time to do such a thing since it is getting near the Holidays and people may be looking for gifts but to retain my sanity and hopefully have a decent nights sleep...I gotta do it. I'll still be blogging but as I say it may be less frequently.
Now to this absolutely wonderful award I received from Dori over at From A Yellow House In England. In Dori's words about this award, "I like this award because to me, reaching out to new friends is one of the best things about blogging" and I couldn't agree more. If you have never been to Dori's blog you should stop by. I enjoy it because I totally relate to her being an American living in England...well, I'm not right now but I was. So now I want to bestow this award on a few of my new friends. Here is my list though I'm sure I'll leave someone off.
Thanks again to Dori and all my new blogging friends that I've made since the beginning of the year when I started on this adventure. It makes it all worth it!
In honor of the fact that I'm going to see Ireland's best band EVER ... U2 ... tonight, I decided to have my theme of favorites this week be Ireland. I'm hoping we actually can see since we got the cheapest nose-bleed seats but hey, we'll be there. The first time I ever saw U2 I was about 14 years old and went with a family friend. They were playing at the Warfield in San Francisco and the only reason I was allowed to go was because I was with this family friend. Hard to believe that was 27 years ago!! Where does the time go? Enough of that .... enjoy.
By the way, I just wanted to remind everyone that the EJDSS Team giveaway for October ends next Friday so if you haven't got your entry in for that beautiful pair of earrings then here is the link to the giveaway.
I highly suggest you view this quick clip before you read the rest of my post as it is VERY relevant!
You see, back in September I mentioned the fact that we had car issues here. I never wrote about the issues we had when we went to rent a car, which we had to since life (especially in Las Vegas) stinks without a car. On the Sunday night we went along to the off-site airport car rental place and got to the desk of the company that we use all the time. I won't name names (another Seinfeld reference) so I will now refer to the company as Cents. We went straight to the counter and I handed the Cents employee my reservation number at which time we were told that they didn't have any cars. So if you watched the clip you will know where I'm going with this and the husband and I looked at each other and repeated verbatim to each other the lines in the clip.
The Cents employee writes some stuff down on a form and explains that we should go to their competitors counter and they will honor the reservation and Cents will refund the difference of the daily rental. All we have to do is when we return the car is stop by the Cents counter with the form and our receipt from the competitor and they will send it off to their Customer Service department for the check to be issued. Now, first of all, the rate at Cents was like $30 a day, which is why we use them....always the best rate. The refund of the difference is only for the rate NOT the extra taxes incurred by us because of the higher rate! The daily rate at the competitor is like $60 a day. We had the car for 2 days and when we returned it we went straight over to the Cents counter and they took copies of both the sheet we had originally been given and our receipt from the competitor. We were told (and it clearly stated on this form) that we should receive our refund within 3 weeks. If we don't, then call.
I had it marked on the calendar when the day would be so when that day came and there was still no check I called. You are not going to believe this but the people at the Cents customer service department had NO record of this....they had not received any paperwork from the Las Vegas office. We were not the only ones they had sent to the other company. There were tourists from all over the world and I'm sure their paperwork was never sent either. I was fuming and then had to email the copies of my paperwork which they had never received. Last week I phoned again to find out the status and they say "It may take up to 21 days to receive my refund". Ummm I've already been waiting 4 weeks now and you want me to wait another 3???? I don't think so. I very nicely explained this and last Friday I got a call from one of their employees handling this to say that she had them cut the check and it will be sent out to me this week. We shall see if I do receive it more than 5 weeks after the rental.
Will I rent with Cents again....most likely yes because they always have the lowest rates. Will I let them copy the paperwork to send off if this ever happens again....HELL NO! I'll take copies and send it registered mail myself! Hopefully this won't happen again but I highly doubt it. Again, I feel sorry for the overseas customers who are going to have to try to get their refund like me but from far off. I just needed to rant about this and it was a good excuse to insert a great clip from Seinfeld especially as our experience ran exactly like that clip. It is also a sad indictment on Customer Service nowadays.
